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Barack Obama vs. John Roberts, round 2

For much of Obama’s term, he and Roberts seemed to be at loggerheads. | AP Photo

Both of the vacancies in Obama’s first term — brought about by the retirement of George H.W. Bush appointee David Souter and Gerald Ford appointee John Paul Stevens — resulted in nominations that didn’t do much to change the ideological balance of the court.

Some court-watchers doubt any new case will arise in the next four years that really allows Roberts to undercut Obama’s agenda. “I just don’t see any third act,” said University of Texas Professor Lucas Powe Jr. “The fluke in Obamacare was Kennedy. I just don’t see where Roberts gets the opportunity to anger Obama.”

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To a degree, the Obama-Roberts tension arises simply from the president and chief justice being from opposing political parties. But the last time the leaders of the executive and judicial branches were of different parties — under Clinton and Chief Justice William Rehnquist — sparks didn’t fly despite some politically provocative rulings.

“Clinton could have gotten angry. … During Clinton’s term, the court was on a rampage against Democratic-passed legislation,” Powe said. “I don’t think Clinton cared.”

Powe also noted that the Supreme Court delivered three major decisions against the war-on-terror policies of President George W. Bush, but the rulings didn’t produce talk of tension between Bush and the court.

In 1968, a large part of Richard Nixon’s campaign for the presidency was focused on rolling back what Nixon viewed as liberal excesses of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren. Warren, a liberal Republican and no fan of Nixon, tried to step aside before the 1968 election and engineer the elevation of Justice Abe Fortas to the chief’s job. A Senate filibuster killed the nomination.

With Warren’s resignation already announced, the newly elected Nixon tapped Warren Burger for the chief’s job, and Earl Warren was soon gone. Nixon “didn’t have to coexist with Warren in that position for long,”’ Shesol noted.

And when the Supreme Court issued what may have been its most politically significant decision ever — the Bush v. Gore ruling that effectively handed the 2000 election to President George W. Bush — Clinton had only about five weeks left in office.

The greatest drama between the court and the White House in the past century came after the Supreme Court struck down a series of New Deal programs and President Franklin Roosevelt moved to “pack” the court with additional justices. The move triggered a standoff between Roosevelt and Chief Justice Charles Hughes, but Shesol said FDR never viewed Hughes as the core of the problem he faced with the court.

“In Roosevelt’s case, he respected Hughes and looked to Hughes as a peer. In private, he called him the best politician in Washington, which he meant both respectfully and pejoratively,” Shesol said.

Some of the perceived rivalry between Obama and Roberts can be attributed to their backgrounds — both are from the same generation, both are Harvard Law School graduates and both skyrocketed to the top of their professions.

“There are a lot of superficial similarities that make the contrast more inviting,” Shesol said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified President Nixon’s nominee for chief justice, Warren Burger.